Shackled City Adventure Path Questions (New Question)

[JDragon]

Ok,

I have just signed up to run the Shackled City Adventure Path Campaign for a few people at the FLGS.

I'm in the process of picking up all the back issues so I have what I need to run, but wanted to see if I could get some ?'s answered from the players/Dm's that are working on it.

1. What level is it designed to start with? (I will have 5 maybe 6 pc's)

2. Does it completely cover the progression of levels once it starts? (IE will I need to come up with side treks to keep PC's the proper level?)

3. Aside fromn the maps someone has made for one of the adventures, and the several web enhancements at pazio, are their any other online resources for this campaign?

4. Has anyone converted the first part to 3.5? (It seems like it will be old enough to be 3.5)

5. Anything I should watch out for, or warn my players about at the begining? (IE its a meat grinder be ready to make several characters)

Please throw out anything else you think may be helpful.

Thanks

 

[sir_ollibolli]

We have just started the campaign. There are some things you should consider.

ad 1) Starting level is 1.
ad 2) If your group has not a sufficiently high level to continue into the next installment of the Adventure Path, there are several seeds for side quests given.
ad 3) Not that I know of. But I will set up my own (but VERY slow) web server soon, where I will post information about those campaigns (caveat: in German).
ad 4) We are running in 3.5 and so far it was no problem for me to have the critters in 3.5
ad 5) It will be lots of dungeon crawling. I will try to have a counter weight to these exploration flings by fleshing out the townsfolk of Cauldron and also to bring in the Stormblades (I do not know how my players will react, friendly, friendly competition, competition, enemies). This is also something that Erik Mona has talked about, and in a further Adventure Path the installments will vary more...

Tips:
Bring the information from the different adventures together to form a cohesive tapestry

Mix the rumours (i.e. in the first installment you can also seed the first infos about other things)

We are playing in Greyhawk and the group began in a harbor village nearby called Lunding that is handling the transport from and to Cauldron. The group met and decided to forego watining for the next caravan from Cauldron and travelled to Cauldron, thereby meeting a caravan with Sarcem Delasharn (see 2nd installment) and Alek Tercival (so you also have the Paladin out of your hair, but Alek will return after the first installment of the Path is complete), they have also made acquintance with the inhabitants of the Lucky Monkey (which is a tavern and also the base for a woodcutting operation) and one of my characters (an elf) has already romantic interest with Shansen Tesseril.

Upon arriving in Cauldron they were immediately shepherded to the Captain of the Guard (a JJJ type), who gave them their "Welcome" speech. ("We want no trouble", "If we see each other again here, than there will be trouble, understood?", and so on). They were pointed to an inn belonging to the brother of the Captain, where also many guards would linger in their off-time (they get specials bonuses there) and would be able to keep an eye on these newcomers. (I picked the Slippery Ale for this, but I did not have the tie to check in the other installments, what else is supposed to happen there - since I will be forced to move this into another location)

Another thing... Why is Cauldron where it is? (a 4500 people community in the middle of nowhere)

I came up with an economic solution. Mining (needs lots of wood, see above). The volcano of Cauldron is a repository of "Red Malachite". Malachite is fairly common in volcanic regions, but I have thought about a specific impureness causing this colorful effect. During these mining efforts also some diamond was found. Basically are the Lords of the city also the owners of the mining operations.

Have fun!

 

[Berandor]

sir ollibolli, would you mind posting here (or sending me a mail/pm) when your server goes live?

 

[sir_ollibolli]

Sure, will do... (there will be lots more information on this server about my other groups as well, a Call of Cthulhu campaign, a WOD campaign, a L5R d20 campaign, with a blog and so on )

 

[Rauol_Duke]

Sir_Ollibolli has covered your questions well enough, just a few things to add. With 5 or 6 PC's, you should start them at 1 st level. My PC's have never had any problems keeping up with the level progression of the adventures and I've never had to do any side treks.

The adventure path started when 3.5 was about to be released, so I pretty sure that everything was 3.5 compatible, I don't think you'll have to worry about that.

The path is pretty challenging, and some of the encounters can be pretty deceptive. My PC's have handled most of the BIG encounters well enough, but have had fits with other encounters that should have been easier (because of enimies tactics, encounter locale, etc.).

You are at a great advantage to most of use who have been running the adventure path, you'll know what's ahead! I've run the entire adventure path as it came out and have had a few bumps here and there, because I didn't know what came next. Be sure you are very familiar with the entire series (or as much as you have) before running.

 

[sir_ollibolli]

In the first or second installment it was written the other locales can be used as fit for the DM's... and over the course of the adventures most locales were explored anyway... see for example the introduction for the tenth installment, were the showdown will take place in yet another location on the player map in Dungeon #98. I think only the giant's castle was not used...

Another thing is the placement of Cauldron in the campaign world. In Greyhawk it is in the middle of nowhere, but they state that a bigger town is nearby (on the map there is no town, not even a harbor nearby...I made this up myself... see above).

So basically today is the date, when you know which locales a really used for the adventure path, when you want to flesh out the rest, you now know which areas to avoid, because they are relevant to the future story line...

 

[Simplicity]

I have converted most of the first two adventures to 3.5....
And really, I think they might play better kept the way they
are. One reason is that the pulverizers are CR 3 in 3.0, and CR 4
in 3.5... No need to turn meat grinders into bigger meat grinders.

 

[JDragon]

Thanks for the info everyone, I'll keep it all in mind.

OF coarse right now I have to find issue 97 so I can get this party started.

I have easy access to all of the other issues in the series except the first one. So far the only place I have found it is on Pazio's site, which states shipping could take up to 6 weeks, which just isn't going to fly.

So the search continues.

 

[sir_ollibolli]

OF coarse right now I have to find issue 97 so I can get this party started.

So the search continues.

Try here...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=44112&item=5910419443&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

this issue has a cool poster map of Cauldron that really helps you. I have also made printouts from this map, that was available on the WotC site. (If no one helps you, i will send you this map on Monday...)

 

[JDragon]

Thanks,

I have dowloaded the maps from the Pazio web site, and checking on that ebay auction. (Thanks for the lead on that, I hadn't gotten that far in my search)

I may be able to get # 97 from a friend.